The need to detect and/or quantify analytes in a sample has become increasingly important. In medicine, for example, there is a need for assays that detect or quantify nucleic acids or polypeptides, as well as a need for assays that detect and quantify proteins interacting with other proteins or proteins interacting with other molecules. There is an especially acute need for such assays in biological samples of interest, such as blood, urine or other biological materials such as tumor samples that have been preserved, or fixed, so that their composition can be readily determined at a time far removed from surgery, for example. Cancer patient would benefit from an assay that could detect and quantify proteins or oligomers or dimers from fixed samples that are harvested at the time of resection and analyzed at much later time.
The current invention provides an enhanced method for detecting and/or quantifying at least one analyte in a sample.